By Deanne Willson
In what ways does my magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ?
Front Cover The masthead on my front cover is in the conventional place by being at the top but style is unconventional and shows the modern edge to my magazine. The cover lines are in an unconventional place by being on the right but there is a reason for this as my Main headline is on the third left so when my magazine is on a shelf you can get drawn in by the main headline and you get an idea of what my magazine is about. Also I have put my promotions and freebies at the bottom of the magazine. My picture is quite conventional except for the fact its got a white background but this doesn’t matter as it goes with the look of my magazine.
In what ways does my magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ?
Contents Page My contents page is quite conventional in the way that there is an equal amount of text to the picture ratio. In my contents you can see a picture of the front cover so you know it’s part of the same magazine the box and style of writing coming up is been put in is the same as the front cover so it shows the house style Although the way I have set it out its quite simplistic and not overdone like most content pages are like now a days which I think is quite refreshing and makes it seem like it challenging the conventions of other magazines contents pages.
In what ways does my magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ?
Double Page Spread I feel the way I went about my DPS was based on very conventional idea but in parts became unconventional. My magazine is conventional by the way I have styled my question and answer section which would be likely to be seen like that in most popular magazines. The big picture on the first page is also conventional in the way it isn’t in a weird place it just suits where it is. They way in which my DPS is unconventional is the pictures on the left hand side and how the plotted. This is because they don’t have a specific place to be in the article so they have been placed there so you get an idea about who she is and what she might be like without having to read the article.
How does your magazine represent particular social groups ? I have presented the artist to be a fun girl who's out for a good time. I have made her appear to be grateful and realises that if it weren't for her fans she wouldn’t be here today. The images I have got of her shows her to have a sense of a pop style. The personality of her also shines through as it shows her being quite happy and she looks like a laugh which is what I wanted her to be seen as. Pull quotes show her to be laugh but also quite serious at the same time when it comes to making and writing the music she puts the career head on where as when she isn’t doing this she is someone who can take the piss and take it back She is also a young teen who isn’t made to appear sexy but is made to look her age. This would appeal to a young girl teen audience as she looks like an ordinary teenage girl. The language used in the article is not full on swearing but it also isn’t to young it is more for young teen girls and little bit older.
What kind of media institute might distribute your magazine and why ? The two major magazine publishes are unlikely to publish my magazine as it different to most magazines that are out there at the minute so it is likely I would have to publish the magazine myself. Even though it dose follow many conventions it is still different to the other young teen girls magazines that are out there. Many magazine publishes would see my magazine as too much of a risk to publish so me publishing it on my own on a site like www.issue.com appears to be only option.
Who would be the audience for my magazine ? The likely audience for my magazine is going to be girls who like listening pop with a bit of an edge. The age range is properly going to be 13-16 year old girls The reasons for me thinking this is the images are of a teen girl who isn’t being seen as a sexual object so the idea be hide my magazine isn’t the usually which would appeal to older audience which is sex sells. The images show the girl to be down to earth and healthy which will make many teen girls feel good about them self as most magazines aimed at young girls shows people who unbelievable attractive via surgery and the images are usually mega Photoshoped and show girls who are at unhealthy weights. The audiences aspirations and lifestyles shown are being successful and wanted to become famous via singing but also shows that it takes hard work and dedication to reach your goals in life.
How I attracted and addressed the audience of my magazine ? To get opinions on my magazine I did a survey on Facebook via survey monkey from this I got an good idea of what other people thought about my magazine and who they thought it was targeted at and how what they though about my magazine overall. I found out that the 75% of the people who answered my survey was attracted by the layout and colour scheme where as the other 25 % was attracted to the main image. Also 100 % of the people surveyed said the liked the colour scheme I have used. Even though 100 % said it is conventional in the way it’s been laid out they can’t think of any magazine that is out there that it reminds them of. Most agreed that my magazine is targeted at girls but they didn’t all agree on the age but majority which was 55 % said between the ages of 13 – 16. The picture quality was seen as good but not the best out there. On a positive note they could tell that all pages belonged to the same magazine.
What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product ? While constructing my magazine I used a couple of techniques the ay technique from Photoshop I used was the lasso tool which I used to cut out images to put them in my magazine so they then looked better with the background I put be hide them. I also learnt how to use the stamp tool so I could make my model look less imperfect but not make it too noticeable. While doing this I screen grab a lot of my work which shows the techniques I used which I've just explained and then uploaded this onto my blog which can see in the link below. ( deannewillson.blogspot.com)
What I have learnt from constructing my magazine ? Looking back at the college magazine I did in September which you can find hear ( http://deannewillson.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html ) I think you can defiantly tell I have came a long way in terms of my front cover on my music magazine the one I did recently its much more mature and looks a lot more like a front cover of an actually magazine. The biggest improvement I feel I have made is my contents page as I feel the first one I did was not even close to being a good standard I feel it was lazy. I'm very happy with one have done now as I feel I put a lot more effort in to it and show via the quality and standard shown now. I feel my skills in photograph have improved although I feel I could have cut-out the pictures better as I feel this was a weak point for my magazine. I feel that my time management as also improved considerably as I got the majority of my music magazine coursework in on time where as with my first I feel I did respect the time I had to do it, This project has made me think that yes working at A2 media would be fun for me. I feel like this because i feel that i have got the ability and confidence in my self to do A2 media.
Top of the Pops Top of the Pops magazine is a monthly glossy publication published by BBC Magazines The similarities between this magazine and mine is the target audience is young teens. Although on the other hand mine isn’t all about current artists its more about the up and coming artist that on kind of on the underground scene looking for a break.
Magnet The magazine is published four times a year, and is independently owned and edited by Eric T. Miller. Music. The similarities between this and my magazine is about artists that are know just breaking through and artist who are looking for there big brake. Although the target audience is different in the fact the audience is more 20 over maybe.